First, there was the Blade. A revolutionary pair of KEF speakers that took the hi-fi world by storm. Likened as the ‘super cars of loudspeakers’, the Blades were the world’s first single apparent source loudspeaker with impressive sonic capabilities. Now… world firsts tend to come at a bit of a price. The Blades were indeed revolutionary and wholly impressive, much like super cars. But also, like super cars, scarcely anyone could actually afford them.
Well, now the Blade 2 has landed, that’s all about to change.
Yes, the Blades had a baby! These impressive loudspeakers may be smaller than the Blades, but they have almost exactly the same acoustic prowess (yes, the incredible soundstage provided by the single apparent source that made their predecessors famous remained!) and the fact that they’re smaller in scale does have a few key benefits. For starters, they’re notably cheaper. Secondly, they’re much easier to place than the Blades which, although impressive in stature, didn’t really fit well into the average living space. Or even the above average one.
Let’s have a little peak at the specs…
Type
Design: Three-way bass reflex
Config: Single apparent source
Drive Units
Uni-Q MF: 5″ Li-Mg-Al/LCP hybrid cone
Uni-Q HF: 25mm (1″) vented Al dome
Bass LF: 4 x 6.5″ (force cancelling)
Frequency range
Free Field: (-6dB) 34Hz – 45kHz
Typical room: bass resp (-6dB) 25Hz
(±3dB): 40Hz – 35kHz (-6dB @28Hz)
Crossover Frequency: 320Hz, 2.4kHz
Amplifier
Requirements: 50 – 400 W
Sensitivity: (2.83V/1m) 90dB
THD: (90dB, 1m) <0.5% 40Hz – 100kHz
THD: (90dB, 1m) <0.2% 200Hz – 10kHz
Max output: 116dB
Max SPL: 1m w pink noise
Impedance: 4Ω (min 3.2Ω)
General
Dimensions (HWD): 1461 x 338 x 475mm
Weight: 35.3 kg
Smaller, maybe. But certainly not any less powerful or any less beautiful to look at. Or hear. You really do have to hear them to believe them, it’s high fidelity on a completely new level.
We have temporarily loaned our beloved orange Blades to Lamborghini Birmingham to use in their showroom (we’re told they get just as much attention as the cars do – no surprises there!) but if you fancy trying out the rather delectable second in line, we have a pair of foundry editions wired up and ready to go in our showroom.
See? And don’t they fit in nicely?
Give us a shout if you want to demo them for yourself, and don’t worry too much about the cost (just in case you fall in love, which can’t promise you won’t!), we have several 0% finance packages available to our customers, the most popular on the Blade 2 has been at £16,000 with a 10% deposit of £1600 and monthly payments of £400 over 36 months. That’s not the only option, of course. But if you break it down like that, owning a pair of Baby Blades like these doesn’t seem quite so impossible.
… we’re just off for one more listen. Join us, if you can!